Thursday, 18 February 2010

Luton BNP look like importing a Leighton Buzzard activist to contest one of the two general election seats. Fresh from deceiving the British Legion by booking their hall under the false name of "British Heritage" (yawn) Shelley has unveiled her long-standing plan to stand that follows on from a December 12th "Yuletide" party fundraiser. Meanwhile, here's an extract from a February edition of Leighton Buzzard online that declares her candidacy :

"SUPPORTERS of the controversial British National Party defied their critics and held a political rally in Leighton.

People turning up to the recruitment meeting, originally planned for the Royal British Legion in West Street, were redirected to a town centre pub less than a mile away.

More than 60 people attended to listen to Shelley Rose, one of the BNP's parliamentary hopefuls, talk about the furore.

This week Ms Rose claimed she told RBL club secretary, Eileen Johnson, that the booking was for the BNP and asked her on three occasions to confirm the date with the building's managers.

"I wasn't trying to hoodwink anyone," said Ms Rose, who intends to contest one of the Luton seats at the next general election."

THE BNP has vowed to hold its meeting in Leighton Buzzard today – but it will not reveal where.The British National Party had booked the hall of the Royal British Legion for a meeting.However, after an outcry from the public and the town’s MP, the armed forces’ organisation cancelled the booking on Monday.They say they booked it as a political meeting in early January, and did not know the BNP was involved.Andrew Selous, MP for South West Bedfordshire and member of the town’s branch of the Legion, was ‘astounded’ to hear the meeting was taking place – particularly because it fell on Holocuast Memorial Day.

He told LB NEWS yesterday: “Given that this country fought fascism during the Second World War, I was absolutely astounded to find they were holding a meeting at there.“I was so astounded I nearly dropped the phone “Now they’ve agreed to cancel it I think that’s the right decision.“There are plenty of places the BNP can go. They can have a meeting in a room above a pub.“I think it would have been the most tremendous coup for them to hold the meeting on Holocause Memorial Day at that venue.” Several constituents told Mr Selous they would have resigned from the Legion if the meeting, which was only for BNP members, had gone ahead.He has written to the national chairman asking for them to issue guidance to all clubs.The Royal British Legion is an organisation which supports the families and members of the Armed Forces, past and present.Hoping to distance their campaign from the BNP, in May their national chairman wrote to the party’s leader Nick Griffin asking him not to wear a poppy.Eileen Johnson, the Legion’s secretary, said: “Everything’s all finished with now. We’re hoping it’s all going away.“Because of the people that were complaining we were asked that it be cancelled. We booked it in early January as a politicial meeting.” A national spokesman for the Legion said that clubs are independent and can take bookings at their own discretion, however they dissociate themselves from political organisations.